We don’t like to think of God being a God of judgment (Eccl. 12:13-14) and wrath (Rom. 1:18). However, we need to keep in mind the reason for His exhibiting those particular characteristics – sin, unrighteousness, unfaithfulness, wickedness, evil – all of which are contrary to God’s very nature and self-destructive to those who practice such. God is totally righteous, and He created us in His own image. He holds us accountable for living up to that image as best we can. While God condemns sin and warns us to abstain from it (1 Thess. 5:22), He is also merciful and eager to forgive when we repent and seek His forgiveness (Dan. 8:8-9).
God not only has the ability and willingness to forgive, He also wants to forgive. But forgiveness must be preceded by repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). Repentance is not just being sorry (2 Cor. 7:9). Repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change in behavior. It entails a turn around in practice that includes a turning away from sin.
When Jesus forgave the woman taken in adultery He told her to “sin no more” (Jn. 8:11); that’s repentance. Jesus taught His disciples to forgive a brother who might sin against them, even if he should sin against them on a repeated basis and in the same day. The condition for the forgiveness, however, was that the brother repent (Lk. 17:3-4). Repentance is required in the process of conversion (Acts 3:19), preceding being baptized for the remission of one’s sins (Acts 2:38).
All of us, in our walk through life, stumble and sin (Rom. 3:23). The consequence of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). But that same verse encourages us that God has a gift of eternal life. He wants to give us that gift. Obviously, forgiveness is available if we will repent and properly seek His forgiveness.
How can we know that God really wants to forgive us? How much does He want to forgive us? Both questions have the same answer – God sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay the price for the guilt of our sins (Rom. 5:6-10). God offered His Son as the ultimate sacrifice to bear our sins (Heb. 9:26, 28). No greater statement of desire to forgive, or of seriousness in that desire, could possibly be made.
God offers us forgiveness through Christ (Col. 1:13-14). We receive that forgiveness as we’re baptized into Christ (Acts 2:38; 22:16) for the remission of our sins. God has emphatically demonstrated His desire to forgive. Now, we must take the initiative and seek His forgiveness, on His terms. How blessed we are, and how thankful we should be, to serve such a God, a God of forgiveness!…

If we have a problem with God bring a God of judgment, thinking of Him being a God of wrathis even more troublesome. We don’t like to think ofGod in that light. We like to focus on what we consider to be His positive characteristics – love, goodness, kindness, mercy, grace and forgiveness. We put a negative connotation on the concepts of judgment and wrathand even more so as they might apply to God.
Many folks do not want to hear about God‘s wrath. Some may reject the very possibility that He would exercise wrath. Others have rejected God altogether because they think wrath is ungodly. But the scriptures repeatedly speak of God’s wrath. Considering the motivation behind Hiswrath, it is justified and right.
The apostle Paul speaks of God dealing with individuals with both “goodness” and “severity” (Rom. 11:22). Of course, the circumstances dictate which God will use in a given situation. “Forbearance” and “longsuffering” demonstrate His goodness and are intended to lead us to repentance (Rom. 2:4-11). Those who are faithful and obedient will be blessed with “eternal life” (vs. 7, 10). Those with hard, impenitent hearts will face God’s “wrath” (vs. 5, 8-9). His “wrath” demonstrates God’s severity; it is “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men…” (Rom. 1:18).
God’s wrath is not such as would be demonstrated by a human being. It is not uncontrolled rage. It is not mean-spirited hatred. It is not seated in evil. God’s wrath is righteous and justified and deserved. It is focused upon the person who lives an ungodly life in spite of all of God’s blessings bestowed upon and His goodness displayed toward that person. It is God’s response to a person’s chosen life of unrighteousness and sin.
Paul wrote something quite telling in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess. 5:9). The next verse notes that Christ “died for us.” That death was on the cross to pay the price for the guilt of our sin, and it was specifically directed by God. God did that for us, that we might be redeemed from the condemnation of our own sin. When we, in a sense, throw that sacrifice back in God’s face by continuing to live in sin, we deserve His wrath!
Someone might think that wrath is beneath a loving, merciful God ofgrace, that such a God would not resort to wrath. But that line of thinking ignores the reason that calls for and justifies the wrath – the terriblenessof sin! Sin is not incidental; it is not a minor matter. Sin sullied the unique, divine image in which man was created. Sin is eternally destructive. Because God recognized these facts, He devised the way, through the death of His own Son, for man to be cleansed, forgiven, reconciled. God’swrath is a reflection of the horrible awfulness of sin…

 ‎Devadas Prakash

​Truth, how elusive it can be! Truth is central to being able to live our lives effectively. We depend upon knowing truth in making decisions that guide and profoundly affect our lives. We assure others that they can trust us because we are truthful. We instill this principle within our children by teaching them to always tell the truth. Yet, as human beings, we struggle with truth.
For one thing, many people disagree as to truth. For some truth is a matter of opinion or feeling. For others it is perception. For still others truth is relative, always changing with the circumstances. Some folks are uncomfortable with the idea that truth can be absolute. There are even people who are skeptical as to whether truth can actually be known with certainty. Such positions are a slap in the face of real truth.
Real truth is not a matter of opinion, nor is it simply personal perception. Truth is not relative; without question truth can be known with certainty, absolutely. We can make these bold declarations, basically, because of God – God is a God of truth!
God is truthful by character; we understand the concept and importance of truth because of His character. Without God there is no standard for truth. He is identified as the “God of truth” (Ps. 31:5), the very “Spirit of truth” (Jn. 15:26), so much so that He “cannot lie” (Tit. 1:2; Heb. 6:18). His very “word is truth” (Jn. 17:17), and it is that truth that is key to our forgiveness, redemption, salvation and eternal life (Jn. 8:32).
Many people find truth, at least in given circumstances, to be inconvenient. It’s not what they want. They don’t want to be constrained by the truth. As a result, they try to bend and reshape it to fit their desires at that moment. If they shout loud enough and long enough many people will come to believe their version of the truth. In reality, declaring falsehood to be truth does not make it so, and grave danger awaits those who practice such deception. Isaiah warned “those who call evil good, and good evil” (Is. 5:20).
Truth is truth by reality, not by consensus. Truth is truth whether or not anybody likes it or believes it. Cold, hard facts – evidence – determine real truth. People frequently deny truth, even call error truth. Sometimes it’s out of ignorance, never having been presented accurate information. Often, however, even when presented the undeniable facts of a matter, they still deny the facts and hold onto error.
God has not left us without warning or instruction as to the importance of knowing and properly responding to the truth. One day we’ll all face the judgment scene (2 Cor. 5:10) and be judged “according to truth” (Rom. 2:2). Since His word is that body of truth by which we’ll be judged, we need to diligently study it in order to be prepared for that day (2 Tim. 2:15). Those who “do not obey the truth” will experience God’s wrath (Rom. 2:6-9). We cannot expect to live in error in this world and live with God in heaven – God is a God of truth…

Devadas Prakash

Class 1 – The difference between the Old Testament and New Testament.  As a whole, those in the denominational world do NOT know the difference.  Many had just as soon go to the OT to prove a point for today as to the NT.  The New Testament went into effect in Acts 2.
Class 2 – Records of conversions.  There are about ten examples of conversion in the New Testament.  When all are studied it is plain that Faith, Repentance, Confession of Christ, and Baptism for the remission of sins is into the body of Christ and for salvation.  Acts 2:38; 22:16; Mk. 16:16.
Class 3 – Church history.  We study the establishment of the church and its spread all over the world, how denominations go started, and the basis upon which we claim to be the church of the New Testament. (The identity of the church).
Class 4 – The worship of the church.  The Lord’s Supper – Mt. 26:26-29; Acts 20:7; Giving– I Cor. 16:2; prayer-in the Lord’s supper – Mt. 26:26-29; prayer at other times also Eph. 6:18; I Th 5:17; singing Eph 5:19; Col 3:16; preaching.  In Acts 20:7, Paul preached until midnight.  We don’t when he started, but apparently it was a long sermon.  The context might indicate why.
Class 5 – The Nature of the church.  Jesus is Head of the body, the church Col. 1:18: and gave Himself up for it – Eph 5:25.  Jesus purchased the church with His blood – Acts 20:28.  And yet, some think the church is NOT essential?  If not, then the blood of Christ purchased the churs is not essential either??  How can any Bible student believe such?
Class 6 – The Organization of the church.  The Bible teaches there is ONE body – Eph 4:4.  And, Jesus is the Head of the body, the church – Col 1:18.  So, Jesus has the “preeminence” in all things --
Class 7 – The WORK of the church.  The basic work of the church is to reach the lost, and edify the saved.  In Mk 16:16, Jesus said, “Go ye into all the woorld, and preach the gospel to every creature.” V.16, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be save; but he that believeth not shall be condemned.”  Mk. 16:16.  Please note that in v. 15, God wants all in the world to hear the gospel.  We as Christians have a great obligation to carry out God’s will today as it was carried out in the first century.  In Col 1:23, “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope off the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister.”
Class 8 – A LESSON ON MORALITY, how to tell what is right and wrong.  There are two parts to Christianity.  One part is DOCTRINAL, which includes how to become a Christian, the work of the church, worship in spirit and truth, and the organization of lthe church, et.  The other part is MORAL.  What is right and what is wrong in the moral realm?  God’s people are to be the best moral people in the world, and certainly faithful in worship, attendance, and spiritual growth.

• In studying morality, there are many things condemned.  For example: Gal. 5:19-21, lists quite a few.  “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like:  of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” (KJV)
• I Tim 4:16, teaches of two parts of Christianity.  “Take heed to thyself, and to thy teaching.  Continue in these things; for in doing this thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee.”  The two parts of Christianity are, (1) Take heed to self, your moral living, and (2) to thy teaching or doctrine.  Make sure you teach the truth.  Make sure you live a clean, moral life.  There are people who live a clean moral life yet know littlel about following the Bible in religion.  How sad!  There are also some who know religion and follow the Bible on it, yet know little about moral lives and are not following the Bible on such.
• Prov. 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he whould go, and even when he is old, he will not depart from it.” Prov. 22:15 – “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.” Prov. 13:24.  He hat swarth his rod hateth his son…”

Truth In Love Vol 7, No. 1, January, 2014, David Bonner

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